


New York!St. Berry One Shot

by awful_sweet



Series: A Series of St. Berry One Shots [2]
Category: Glee
Genre: F/M, St. Berry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 11:58:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/811359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awful_sweet/pseuds/awful_sweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You don't really need to read the roleplay that this one shot is set in but you're more than welcome to at http://thestarnamedrachelberry.tumblr.com</p>
<p>All you need to know is AU world, Rachel and Jesse met at Julliard where he was her TA and they then discovered he also lived on the same floor in their apartment building. Epic romance ensued, and this is a fluffy look at their future.</p>
<p>Oh, also they're both a little bit competitive</p>
            </blockquote>





	New York!St. Berry One Shot

The run up to Jesse St. James’ birthday was always one of prolonged panic for Rachel. They may have spent years together, her finger may now be decorated with a sparkling Tiffany’s diamond and matching wedding band, but the idea of finding him the perfect gift was something that had haunted her for just as long.  No-one would ever know how many kittens she had sent back because they weren’t  _just_  right. In the end they had bought a dog together instead and spent four week arguing over his name while their poor baby just had to settle for being called puppy. In the end it had been too late and puppy was all they _could_  get him to respond to. It was better than Jesse’s suggestion of naming the poor thing cat, at least.

Leafing through her planner, Rachel sighed as she examined her closely annotated notes for each past present. The only thing worse than an inadequate present was a repeated one, after all. Last year she had tied herself to the posts of their bed and supplied Jesse with an array of toys, some of which even _she_ hadn’t known existed, for his own amusement. It had been a 24 hour affair that was still causing her to blush when they had dinner with his parents the next day and Anne St. James had complimented her on her pearl necklace. A few years before that she had presented as only part of his gift coupons that he could use throughout the following year whenever he needed to cut his hair. They served as a promise that she would minimize her moaning about the sudden disappearance of the fluffy curls she spent an excessive amount of time cooing about each day. Jesse had been so overwhelmingly happy with the small laminated cards that Rachel was pretty sure they were what had prompted him to propose on their sixth anniversary a few months later. 

The worry of a repeat was not nearly the most frustrating thing about her husband’s birthday, however, that moniker belonged to the Tony’s and their unfortunate proximity to his special day. The year he had won his first medallion through his, in her opinion _and_ the American Theatre Wing’s, simply unparalleled performance as Jack in the revival of Into the Woods, Rachel had been simultaneously thrilled and frustrated. If only she made up the majority of the ATW’s voters and she could have claimed the Tony as her gift to him because if she was honest with herself Rachel knew that no present she ever gave Jesse was going to match up to one of those prized golden coins. As if to add insult to injury he was up for  _another_  one this year. _Of course_ , Rachel was ecstatically happy for him, and _of course_ he deserved it for his heartbreaking performance as Javert. He had already come home with the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award, the glass block twinkling in the sunny morning light and shining teasing rays of light into her eyes whenever she glanced up at it… Scuppered by her own husband’s talents. Rachel was sure someone should be writing a musical about her hardships by now.

Jesse really didn’t realize how ridiculously lucky he was that her birthday was six months before the most important night of every Broadway actor, fan and lighting tech’s year. She could never have called her Tony for her performance as Fanny in the belated revival of Funny Girl a birthday present and therefore he automatically won top spot. His presents were always perfect anyway regardless. One last glint of that stupid award his excellence saw Rachel flipping back to the front of her planner in frustration to gaze at the detailed timetable of the past three weeks of her life. Charity functions, the Tony nominations, food shopping while Jesse was at rehearsals, everything was carefully catalogued there so Rachel never forgot and was never…  _late_. 

Oh, but she _was_ late. She was really quite late and she couldn't quite believe she hadn't noticed. It had to be have been the stress of her schedule: Tony nominations night, holding her husband’s hand as Sutton called out the lucky few nominated for best supporting actor, choosing a dress, helping Jesse select the perfect ‘second Tony win’ suit, and the many, many other calls on both a Tony award winning actress, and the wife of a Tony award winning actor... They had all meant the small cross noted on the second Tuesday of this month flew by without her mind or body taking any notice. Not even  _Jesse_  had noticed. Pausing on the page Rachel quickly did the math, her lips mouthing the dates as she calculated just how late she was for a girl who was never late. 

2 and a half weeks. 

She could pass it off as stress, she supposed, but Rachel had always lived a stress filled life and not once had her body clock deviated from its natural schedule, it just wasn't the done thing, and that meant it could only really be one thing. 

They had talked about trying. Short casual conversations after Rachel had paused their walks in Central Park to coo over a baby or when Jesse’s sister announced she was expecting again, and somehow it had always pointed towards as this eventual occurrence that would happen when it happened. The Great Planners had somehow seemed to throw away control in favour of leaving fate in charge. For someone so absolutely thorough, she was sure she had missed her pill a few times in recent months and as a big supporter of going green she had simply had to put a stop to their continued waste of rubber after only a few months of being together. She could remember Jesse’s face had not been one of amusement when she had used the word  _waste_  to describe what they were doing. 

Regardless, they had been together for nine years now, and spent two of those married, so if she _was_ then they were ready. They could call it one of those inevitable twists of fate that seemed to have been written into their journey together. The twists of Jesse being her TA, her neighbour, the push she had been in desperate need of to finally dump her High School Sweetheart… Jesse and Rachel loved control and planning, their wedding  _had_  taken an entire year of non-stop work to put together and execute after all, but even she had to admit that some of the best things to come to them were surprises. 

As it turned out she was most definitely carrying one of their little surprises and it was only as she was walking out of her doctor’s clinic clutching the shiny ultrasound picture of their unborn child a few hours later, following a healthy bout of threatening to picket the reception area if they didn’t give her an emergency appointment, that Rachel realized what she was carrying inside her. Not only was the future EGOT winning, multi-talented prodigy of Jesse St. James and Rachel Berry nestled inside her womb but also the best birthday present anyone could ever give someone. 

Rachel had _won_.

…………………………………..

Jesse St James’ eyes fluttered open on the morning of his birthday to what may have been the slightly unnerving stare of his wife if he didn't know and love her crazy so much. “Hi.” He murmured softly, his voice groggy with sleep. Why was she... oh, his birthday. His eyes immediately flickered around the room as they struggled to adapt to the sudden influx of light and he tried to find the location of this year's extravagant gift. Surprisingly, their pathetically named dog was the only other thing of note in their room. Rachel always went overboard on his birthday and the glint in her eye told him whatever she had planned this year was going to be extra special. He didn't really think anything could top last year though and Jesse knew Rachel would never repeat a gift no matter how much he pleaded with her. Much to Jesse's disappointment, like those precious coupons, a day of sex was tragically impossible. 

“Good morning, husband, and a very happy birthday.” Rachel chirped and leaned in to press a sweet kiss to his lips. She was entirely too bright eyed and bushy tailed to have just woken up and he wondered what exactly it was that she was planning. Something big, he could tell that just by looking at her, and his mouth twisted in confusion as he was presented with an envelope that was slim enough in his hands to tell him it only contained the conventional card.

“Only a card? You’re slipping, Rach.” Jesse teased her softly as his thumb slipped under one edge of the envelope flap and slowly slid the digit along to pull up the triangle. He had managed to annoy her for only a moment, one small huff of breath the only indication of the words’ effect, before they had been replaced with the intense gaze and the sudden, sharp intake of breath that Jesse knew all too well… They were her tells whenever she was nervous or excited or nervously excited as she tended to class it. She naturally had every single one of her expressions catalogued already and she had provided him with a helpful powerpoint early on into their relationship to explain and illustrate each one. This particular look had been seen the day before her finals Senior year when he had been forced to take the day off fromhis Off-Broadway production of _Hairspray_ just to keep her calm, and the night where she won her Tony and Jesse had genuinely wondered if he would leave the venue with his hand still fully functioning.  Big, important, _life changing_ moments, and it caused Jesse to pause as he upturned the envelope and let the shiny material of the card slip into his hands, not even Rachel took present giving as a life changing moment.

Well, not until now, at least.

The card was cute, as always, a black and white picture of two cats overlooking the New York City skyline in what was obviously Rachel’s attempt to give her husband a card that wasn’t pink or decorated in glitter. “Are they meant to be us or are they just the kittens you rejected?” Another attempt to lighten what had somehow become an extremely serious mood without Jesse being aware of or giving his permission for such a shift. The joke didn’t land as Rachel barely even acknowledged his teasing dig over her ridiculously high standards for cats and instead kept her gaze focused on the card. His gift must be inside, a gift card to something or…

Jesse didn’t have any more time to speculate as a small square of card slipped from the inside and landed face down onto their bed sheet. He spared one glance up to see his wife’s mouth had formed a small circle of surprise that only _slightly_ had him thinking about her blow job face before Jesse reminded himself that this was obviously not the appropriate moment for such recollections. Flashing her a smile, Jesse quickly scooped up the card and flipped it over in his hands to be confronted with what looked distinctly like a… Oh.

“Rach… is this a..?” His eyes were fixed on the greyish blur. The greyish blur of his wife’s uterus if he was correct, adorned with what looked like a small ball of nothingness but was probably something much more serious. Something much more life changing.

“Happy Birthday, Daddy.” His wife’s reply came as a confirmation just as the whole thing twigged in Jesse’s mind, and he dropped the picture to let it float down onto the comforter so he could pull his wife to him. His lips found hers for a brief second before they began to move down her body, between her breasts, until they reached her stomach where he began to press soft kisses over the area their tiny baby was growing.

Finally, he stopped and rested his head gently against the skin, flat now but soon growing with his child, and smiled up at her adoringly. “We’re having a baby.” They hadn’t been trying, not officially at least, but they were ready. Jesse was finally convinced with Rachel’s help their child wouldn’t end up a crack whore, or worse, a reality TV contestant. If his life had become a series of happy surprises from the day he met Rachel, or rather the day Rachel slammed a door in his face when he told her she lacked Barbra’s emotional depth, then this was definitely the best one. The absolute best one.

Rachel simply smiled down at him, her face one of utter contentment as she sank back into the pillows beneath her.  She made a noise of agreement, and then parted her lips to speak the words Jesse should have expected from the moment he saw their child for the first time.

“ _Also_ , I won.”


End file.
